13 January 2013

North Point Marina Gull Session

I birded North Point Marina today (13 January 2013) with Fran Morel and Matthew Winks. We got started at about 10:00 am and finished up a good day's gulling around 3:00 pm. We were joined for parts of the day by Al Stokie, Bob Erickson, Beau Schaefer, Nolan Lameka, Bob Hughes and Karen Mansfield.

Luckily, the forecasted snow/rain/sleet did not develop during any part of our birding. The wind was relatively calm with mostly cloudy skies, making for good viewing conditions.

At one point, all 3 adult GLGUs were standing out in the open in one view.

The "six" adult Thayer's count is a very liberal estimate.

The presumed adult Nelson's (Glaucous x Herring) was pointed out by Bob Hughes. The bird was Glaucous size with an extensive amount of white in the primaries. The underside to P10 was white and the upperparts were a shade paler than the surrounding HERGs.

Not unexpected, "zero" Great Black-backeds were sighted. It still amazes me how selective this predatory species is on Lake Michigan. For what it's worth, 41 GBBGs were seen at Two Creeks in Manitowoc, Wisconsin on Tuesday (08 January 2013). This is a new high count record for the state of Wisconsin.